Janice Funderburk

Age: 40
Occupation: Self Employed
Number of Cruises: 4
Cruise Line: Carnival
Ship: Sensation
Sailing Date: June 12th, 2004
Itinerary: Western Caribbean

This is the first time we have taken a cruise with our kids and our first cruise with Carnival, three others with RCCL. I was amazed at how much bigger the staterooms were compared to RCCL. Our oldest daughter just turned 21. Her and a friend shared a stateroom. My husband, 12-year-old daughter, and I shared a stateroom. I never felt crowded. We all had a wonderful time. Needless to say, we are already planning another cruise with Carnival on the Destiny for next year. My kids have already said they would rather go on a cruise than do anything else. The only complaint I have is the room service coffee, nasty, nasty stuff. I love having my coffee every morning without having to walk 50 miles to get it. I even ordered a carton of milk the second morning to try to make it taste better, nothing helped. The bright side of this, I was awake in 5 minutes after drinking that stuff. But, really this was no big deal. I will find the solution to this problem before our next cruise, so I can have my coffee and drink it to. (Maybe a small personal coffee maker, I can pack in my suitcase, I’m sure my husband want mind another item added to the suitcase.) Anyway, other than that, the food was good everywhere we ate on the ship, which included the dining room every night, we love dressing up for dinner. Our cabin was kept clean, and everyone was so nice. As far as a lot of kids being on the ship, we went the second week in June, and we really didn’t see tons and tons of kids. There were some of course, and you will see the teens at Kareoke, but I never saw any of them being rude or disgusting, believe me I can handle my own kids, I just have a hard time dealing with other peoples kids. I was really worried about this before we went. I didn’t want someone missing a kid, after I had throne them overboard.

Embarkation

We drove to Tampa from Charlotte, NC, which is a good 11-hour drive. We drove down on Friday, stayed at the Best Western in Tampa, (Dale Mabry Hwy) not a bad hotel for a night. The next morning, we showered, went to find breakfast, checked out at 11:00. We made a stop at Walmart and then headed for the Port, which was a short drive away. We dropped off our luggage at the loading zone, tipped the baggage handler, and went to park our vehicle in the parking deck, which is across the street. ($50.00 for the week) We made our way inside, got our sign and sail cards, then waited about 30 minutes to be called to board the ship. We boarded the ship, headed to our cabins, dropped off our carry-ons and headed out to explore the ship, and eat. We ate at the Seaview, no long lines, plenty of places to sit, and the food was good. We later went to unpack, our luggage was there in no time at all. I packed extra clothes hangers, they came in handy. We also packed a couple bottles of liquor in our suitcase, I purchased ours in plastic bottles, didn’t have to worry about anything breaking. We later went to dinner in the Fantasy dining room, we had the late 8:30 seating. Our waiter was very nice, and the food was great.

Sea Day

We pretty much spent the day sunbathing, eating, enjoying the activities on board etc. This is formal night. We went to the cocktail party, then to dinner, had our pictures made.

The 8x10’s are $19.95. I can’t remember how much the other’s were. We spent some time in the Casino, no luck there. It was always cold in the Casino, so you might want to bring a light sweater or a sweatshirt. I almost froze to death in there the first night. Watching drunk people sing Kareoke is fun. (Hello to Vern and the Soggy Bottom Boys)

The shows we saw throughout the cruise were pretty good, and be sure to catch the comedians, they were funny.

Monday, Grand Cayman

We tendered to the pier and decided to just take a cab to the beach, you don’t get much time here, all the excursions leave pretty early, and we are not early morning people. The beach was beautiful; fish would swim right beside you. Had a great time just relaxing, swimming.

As far as the StingRay excursion, some people liked it, others did not, said it was too crowded.

Tuesday, Cozumel

We did a little bit of shopping; I really didn’t see a lot of bargains, as far as souvenirs go I really don’t like to spend my vacation shopping anyway. We just picked up a few items for the folks at home. (Yes I’m a female, go figure.) We had a few drinks at Fat Tuesdays, and then headed back to the ship to change for our BIG EXCURSION. We went swimming with the dolphins. I purchased this at home on Shoretrips.com. This is pretty expensive, but worth it. My kids are both animal lovers, so this was an exciting experience for them. We all loved it. After our Dolphin Encounter, we hung out on the beach, until it was time to head back to the ship. We did our usual, had dinner, gambled a little, drank a lot, watched Kareoke etc.

Seaday

Last day, what a bummer. Sunbathed, ate, drank, sunbathed, ate etc. Went to Bingo, had to talk hubby into going with me. 2 cards cost $20.00, but you get to play 10 games on those same cards, I won $190.00 woo hoo, on the 9th game. I tell you that card sucked up until then, I was about ready to just tear it up. So, yeah that was fun. Had to pack our bags that night, just a tip, do this before you have a few drinks if possible.

Disembarkation

Sad, sad day, If you were on this ship. I was the lady hanging on to the staircase begging to stay for just a little while longer. We packed our remaining items that morning, showered, and went to eat breakfast. After breakfast, we came back to our cabin, got our carry-ons, and headed to the lido deck for disembarkation, which is just waiting for them to call your baggage tag color. We were the last ones called, about 10:00, didn’t seem like a very long time. We went to pick up our luggage, breezed through customs, and headed to the parking deck, the baggage porter will wheel your luggage over to the parking deck. We had already planned to stay a few days in Florida after our cruise. I booked The Tahitian Hotel on Treasure Island, which is on the beach. We headed there after leaving the port. It was okay; I certainly wouldn’t want to stay a week. Not much to do, I guess maybe that it just couldn’t add up to the cruise. We went to Busch Gardens the next day, again okay, but not great. Not worth the almost $60.00 each. I think I would have rather just headed home after the cruise. All in all, I have to say this has been the best family vacation, we have ever taken. It’s hard not to be depressed a week or so after you get back to the real world, but, hey another 350 days or so and we will be cruising again.

Janice Funderburk